A Birthday of Fun, A Trip to Reno...and a Bunch in Between

Again, I have been neglectful. First off, I would like to give a shout-out to my good friend Catherine Robert who I worked with last summer here in Santa Cruz. She is one of the faithful readers of my blog and she is good about reminding me when I forget to update.

I stay so darn busy here. For some reason, it seems like I am staying much more busy than last summer and it is really hard for me to find time to sit down and update this blog. I will give you a slight synopsis of the last few days.

I turned 21 last Tuesday. I am happy to say that I didn't drink a drop on my 21st birthday. It was a great birthday though. Tarah, my good friend from Virginia Tech, is working at a CTY camp in Palo Alto about an hour from Santa Cruz. She rode the bus over on the morning of my birthday and me, Jordan, and Colton picked her up at the bus stop. We went to Denny's where I had gravy and biscuits (wahoo!) and then we showed Tarah around the campus here where we work. We then proceded to travel up the coast of California towards San Francisco. We stopped at some beautiful beaches and also a lighthouse. It was a great drive. We eventually ended up in San Francisco where we visited the Golden Gate Bridge. There are pictures from the trip below. After we left the Golden Gate Bridge, we visited Stanford (where Tarah is working) and Santa Clara University (where Jordan graduated from.) We also went to a mall where I got a pair of $31 Adidas shoes. It was great.

Camp ended on Friday. Our students from first session left then. I was kind of sad to see mine go. I had a good group of guys. As soon as the students were gone, Jordan, Colton, and I left for our journey to Reno, Nevada. By the time we fought traffic, it took us about 5 hours to get there. We got there around 10:30, ate at Jack In the Box, checked into our hotel, and then we walked around the city. I gambled for the first time. I lost $25 on the slot machines. Even though we were gone for only 24 hours, this was possibly one of the best trips I have taken in my entire life.

On Saturday morning, we got up and left Reno. Before we left, we bought matching t-shirts and hats. On the way back we visited Lake Tahoe. It was absolutely beautiful. We made it back just in time for our staff meeting at 6:30 here in Santa Cruz. It was a great time.

Now, I'm sitting here getting ready to tell my new kiddies to turn their lights out. Hopefully another adventure will happen soon. They are too much fun.

Lots of pictures are below.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

The most beautiful lake I've ever seen

At Lake Tahoe

Rocks at Lake Tahoe, CA

Lake Tahoe, California

Panoramic Picture of Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe, California

Oh no! It's empty!

My first slot machines!

RENO!

At the Golden Gate Bridge

Pigeon Point Lighthouse; Highway 1, California

My Bad

Hey everyone who may still read this. I figured I would give you an update about my time here at camp in California.

The past week or so has been very interesting. We have had a flu outbreak. There have been many kids to leave and go home. I began to get a sickness but mine only lasted for about a day. We now have a seperate dorm that all the sick kids are staying in and we are now required to take the temperatures of all our kids. The college is also making us eat in our own seperate dining room so we don't contaminate the other camps that are here. It is quite the experience.

Otherwise, everything has been going great. We've been spending the majority of our free time exploring places around Santa Cruz and just taking time to relax. My kids are great. My time here is great. Its another awesome summer. I will leave you with some pictures.






Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Address

Last year, I really enjoyed getting birthday cards out here in California...and my birthday is coming up soon. Here is my address if you would like to suprise me with a letter or card.

Zach Triplett
JHU-CTY Summer Programs
c/o Central Conferences
College 9, Res Bldg. 2, Apt. 2231
UCSC
1156 High St
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Good Times in Santa Cruz

I enjoyed myself last summer. Perhaps, last summer was possibly the best summer I had ever experienced. This summer is starting off in a similar way. First, my cross country trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to see so much. Now, I'm enjoying my time working with the kids here at camp.

I have been a bit sore lately. I sprained my ankle somewhere in the midst of my and Colton's 13 mile hike at Big Sur and I am just starting to recover from that. On top of that, my legs are also covered with poison oak and I have a couple blisters on my feet. I am pushing on though.

I have really taken the initiative to get in shape. Day before yesterday, I played Ultimate Frisbee with some of the RAs and then we played Volleyball. Yesterday and today both I woke up around 6AM and took some of the campers running at the track. Yesterday, I ran a mile and today I did 1.5 miles. I am taking the morning off tomorrow to sleep in though.

I am staying super busy here. Sorry I'm not getting to update that much. Once I get caught up on my sleep I will think of some funny stories to tell. Today, one of my kids who speaks Spanish gave me a lesson on Spanish cuss words. Now I know what to look out for!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.